Friday, 10 May 2013

John Wayne is a legend, no two ways about it, he was a good actor, he could play almost any part, he could be funny, he could make you cry, and he was the all time Good Guy!!!
In 1950 he made the 3rd film in the Cavalry Trilogy of John Ford.
Rio Grande!
1949 She wore a Yellow Ribbon
1948 Fort Apache
Ford wanted to make the The Quiet Man first in 1950 but RP Studio's president Herbert Yates insisted they make Rio Grande first.
Yates didn't much like The Quiet Man and wanted to use the money made from Rio Grande to make The Quiet Man, but was very surprised when The Quiet Man was released in 1952 it became Republics No.1 film in terms of box office receipts.
Maureen O'Hara was to star in 5 films with John Wayne, The first 3 were directed by John Ford.

1952 saw the romantic comedy The Quiet Man with Maureen o'Hara and John Wayne, the film was based on a 1933 Saturday Evening Post short story by Maurice Walsh.
The film is set in lush Irish countryside, and was the Official selection of the 1952 Venice Film Festival.
Some little known facts about the cast of the film is that Charles Fitzsimons and James Fitzsimons were Maureens real life brothers, Barry Fitzgerald and Arthur Shields were also real life brothers,
And Francis Ford was John Fords eldest brother.
John Wayne took his 4 children on location with him to Ireland and John Ford gave each of them a part in the important race scene in the film, so all in all it was a real famiy affair!!

Hondo 1953. John Waynes new production company wanted to film this film in the 3D format, and despite the production troubles that came with the location, shooting in 3D, the format had already started to wane in popularity by the time it was ready for release.
The distributing studio Warner Brothers did everything they could to promote it's new 3D camera process and how it went beyond the typical gimmicks used by other popular 3D films of the times such as House of Wax, producing a richer sense of perspective.
The film eventually grossed $4.1 placing it 16th in box office for that yr!!

Since my teenage yrs I must have seen nearly every one of John Waynes films and loved every one of them, he was a great Hero of mine!